In 1963 St. Louise de Marillac Church, named for the founder of the Ladies of Charity,  was established in Covina, California, carved from parts of St. Francis of Rome, Holy Name of Mary, St. Dorothy’s and Sacred Heart parishes.

That wasn’t long after Angela Catania had convinced his siblings and father Mandala Catania to make the move from Thomas Street in Monongah to Covina, which he discovered and fell in love with during his Army Coast Artillery training days of World War II.

Alex Catania, Class of 1944; Mary Catania Heywood, Class of 1945; Josephine Catania, Class of 1952; and their father, Mandala, much like the Conestoga Wagon families before them, joined Angelo, Class of 1943, in the expedition to a new land and a new life. For Mandala, widower of Schiro Catania, it was a reminder of his native Italy.

So it was appropriate that Angelo Catania’s 90^th birthday party flourished in St. Louise de Marillac Church. Angelo is 90 today – Tuesday, Aug. 12.

Angelo married a Monongah girl, Pauline Layne Catania, who passed away in 2001. Mary is married to Arthur Heywood.

Angelo’s sister, Carmella Catania Allard, Class of 1947, wound up in San Antonio because her husband, Omer, still was in the Air Force when the Catania migration took place. He retired after a pair of decades in The Wild Sky Yonder branch. But Carmella made it to Covina for Angelo's fire-hazard 90th birthday candles-lighting.

Alex died in 2007, Josephine in 2009. 

Alex Catania sponsored the Confirmation of Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana near his daughters.

Congratulations for Angelo, who once owned and operated with Alex a Sinclair Station on U.S. 19 behind the Thomas Street homes’ row of garages and adjacent to the Lawrence and Regina Godby residence, have come from his nieces around the nation.

Such as Christine Layne Hoback, business management graduate at the University of Akron when she lived in nearby Streetsboro who resides in Mattoon, Illinois with husband Jack Hoback.

And Leeann Pellegrin, Marion County Special Olympics executive director, who moved from Sterling Heights, Michigan to Fairmont.

And Debbie Sickmen, who lives in Manassas, Virginia.

And Kimberly Basnett Culver, who went from 

Idamay to Monongah High to North Marion to Fairmont State to Cowen, West Virginia and Global Contact Services. 

The Catania family lived on Thomas Street in the third house off Church Street. The Olesky family had the first house, the Frank Mangino family the second. 

The Manginos also moved, to Philadelphia, in the 1950s. Joe Ross bought the Mangino home after Ted, Lanny, Mary and siblings went with parents Frank and Philomena Mangino to the Germantown section of Philly. 

Joy Ross is the widow of Joe’s son, Joe Ross, Jr.

Happy birthday, Angelo! And many more!

If you want to add your congratulations for Angelo’s 90^th birthday, go to Mary Catania Heywood’s Facebook page and she’ll pass the kudos along to him.